While we're on the subject of starting ability: My car was occasionally having
trouble
cranking. I knew the battery was good, and I had checked all the connections,
and I
had replaced the starter solenoid last fall. So I pulled the starter and had a
look
at the brushes. They were quite worn, and the commutator was rather beat up.
So I installed new brushes and resurfaced the commutator on my mini-lathe.
(Check out www.mini-lathe.com!)
BTW, this was a M35J starter, which has the rear-mounted wedge-shaped
brushes and the flat commutator surface.
After I was done, the engine cranked like crazy! It definitely turned
the engine over faster than any time since I got the car (with the
same starter I currently have) 12 years ago. The nice thing was,
I had to pay only $5 or so for the new brushes (plus shipping).
I also replaced the insulated washers that hold the terminal post
to the case. I made some from a piece of fiberglass circuit board,
and they are much sturdier than the dodgy nylon and fiber washers
that some PO had installed.
One tip if you ever try to do this: The new brushes (Lucas brand) came
attached to a new terminal post. But unlike the original, the new post had
metric threads.
Doug Braun
'72 Spit
At 04:41 PM 5/14/2003 +0100, Michael Hargreave Mawson wrote:
>My own theory about this (particularly if the car is not going to be a
>daily driver) is: "the biggest, longest-life, battery that you can
>physically squeeze into the battery compartment". The poxy little
>things that are specified for Spits are absolutely gutless.
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